Wiki World

Baboons Can Recognize words

It was thought that monkeys and chimpanzees were unable to use language as humans do because they do not have the required language centers in their brains. Tests on baboons turned this theory on its head. Monkeys learned the rules of words, for example consonants and vowels, so they could recognize real words in a bundle of made up nonsense.

Humans must first build up words from letters before they get meaning. We need to construct words as if they were tables and chairs, from the legs up.

Baboons were tested by encouraging them to "play" with computers. When they selected a real word they got wheat as a reward. Each computer had a cross and a circle so the baboons could show words and non-words by pressing either symbol. The words were only four uppercase letters long, but each baboon did up to 60,000 tests and they were 75 per cent correct. The best baboon learned 308 words

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Science

Kitten Wnats More

"Please sir, may I have some more?"

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Funny Animal Photos

Search for Smart Genes

It seems the level of intelligence is determined by a few genes. This must surely be too simplistic, particularly because specialists cannot agree on what intelligence is. How do you compare memorizing general knowledge to the skill of knitting a fine jumper? There are people who know just about everything about Australian rugby league, but this is their only area of expertise.

Finding will be made easier, apparently, by questioning the crowd rather that by brain scans, etc. It is believed that the sought after genes affect brain size. Considering that Neanderthals had larger brains than modern man, this seems to be the wrong hypothesis to start with.

While "the team" is sure they will find the genes they do admit that culture, education, health and upbringing can affect intelligence. How are they going to filter these things out? Obviously they can't. Twenty one thousand subjects were catalogued and brain imaging was used. Strangely, when the team was reaching its conclusions they discovered that another group was doing the same research with more people. Now that is clever.

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Society

Cat in Cage

"Something's wrong here."

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Funny Animal Photos

Yowie Takes a Dog in Darwin

Australia's Bigfoot, the Yowie, has been causing problems. It seems it has taken and killed a dog. This has happened in Darwin. The owner of the seven-month old puppy says the head was ripped from its body. At first he thought it was done by dingoes. But a researcher, Andrew McGinn, says it was done by a hairy ape-like beast, a Yowie.

Goat owners in this area have seen their animals decapitated by a tall hairy creature for a hundred years, he says. It is a typical Yowie kill. A local woman saw a hairy humanoid in August 1997. Photographs of footprints were taken the next day.

If the Australian Yowie exists it is certainly very secretive. For hundreds of year there have been sightings. Yet no real evidence has been left, apart from footprints which can be made by anyone.

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Society

Cat Tiger

"When I grow up, I wanna be a tiger."

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Funny Animal Photos

Felons With Guns Are Percieved as Being Larger

Though widely accepted in law courts it is well known that witness evidence is suspect. Even victims in many cases get it wrong. A querk in humans beings is the ability to identify members of one's own race, for the most part, but the noticable inability to recognize people of other races. The phrase "you all look alike" is relevant here.

What people see can be distorted by a felon carrying a weapon. Human perception is still based on how our ancestors saw danger. An opponent carrying a weapon was more dangerous so was perceived as being big and strong.

A current study shows that a witness describing someone with a gun said the gun carrier was larger and taller than he/she actually was. This brings into question prevailing theories on memory. Could a person be seen as being bigger if more aggression was shown without a weapon?

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Society

Rabbit Joke

"Ah, ah,ah. Ah,ah,ah. What a joke!"

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Funny Animal Photos

Society and High Intelligence Go Together

We have large brains due to social interaction. In early societies culture meant things had to be remembered. Another important function leading to large brains was tools use, though chimpanzees use tools. The most intelligent people would inevitably become leaders and have the choice of mates, thus passing on their genes.

Intelligence and brain size are of course interdependent. Animals such as dolphins and elephants have social structures. They are also very intelligent. Higher intelligence appears to be naturally selected for in any species.

Apparently, when society develops intelligence must increase otherwise an individual will be "put upon" by the smarter ones. There is some evidence that really clever individuals tend to be disruptive to a society. The naive are certainly at a disadvantage.

A thorn in the side of the above theory is that some highly structured societies are composed of small creatures with tiny brains. Ants, bees and wasps are in this category.

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Society

Baboons Test New Computer

"I'm telling you. Read the handbook!"

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Funny Animal Photos

Cane Toads Are Killing off Saltwater Crocodiles

You Don't have to be big to kill a crocodile. A small imported pest can kill one. Cane toads are in plague proportions in the Northern Territory.

Cane toads have poisonous sacks on their heads. When a saltwater crocodile eats one assuming it to be a tasty snack the crocodile ingests the poison and dies.

The problem is so serious that the population has fallen by half in some areas. Because the species takes a long time to breed up numbers, the crocodiles could become very scarce in some regions.

Introducing cane toads was a great mistake by Australian scientists. They were brought in to combat beetles destroying sugar crops in 1935. But the toads ignored the beetles and now threaten many native species by eating what they eat. To travel faster around the country some toads have developed larger hind legs to cover a greater distance before the sun goes down.

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Society

Bored Dog

"Ho hum! What a day."

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Man Tortures Kangaroo

Culling an animal species is acceptable but cruelty is not. The exact population of kangaroos in unknown. There are at least as many as there are people in Australia.

Culling involves a direct gunshot to the head. Using your car as a weapon to run over a kangaroo, then kicking it to death is definitely not on.

Nigel Franks went even further: he dragged the carcass two kilometers along the road with a rope attached to his car. A woman found the dead animal in the high street of a town.

In court the defendant was told he was in serious trouble. He had already broken the law before, not complying to a community order. He has to return to court on June 4 to find out what his sentence will be.

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Law

Dog and Cat Who-Done-It

"Alright! Who did it?"

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Funny Animal Photos

Labels: cats , did , dog , eyes , four , group , it , room , row , who

Housing Not Affordable for the Young

The concept of building one and two bedroom houses instead of the traditional three and four bedroom homes seems doomed to failure. More adult children than ever are going back home to live with their parents. A single person simply cannot earn enough to get a loan for a house. If you are a labourer or a TAFE trained worker this is increasingly the case. As many as 70 per cent of people aged under 35 cannot buy a home of their own.

While specialists say tax incentives are needed to enable young people to buy, this is not the problem. Australia will have a housing shortage for decades because there are not enough qualified builders in outback Australia. This is particularly the case in booming Western Australia with mineral companies being forced to have accommodation built at great cost.

Giving the young tax breaks and just giving them handouts is not a solution. It is a bottom up issue not a top down problem. Getting trades persons from other countries will not make any difference either. Countries have unique building codes. For example, in the UK houses are built in double brick where the two walls hold up the roof. In the US they built much larger houses. In Australia brick veneer is the norm where timber holds up the roof and bricks are just decoration.

The next Australian government will probably be Liberal/National. They will not be inclined to give handouts. Moreover, with the push toward a balanced budget next year the current Labor government has no money to spare.

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Cat on Throne

"Just 'Your Majesty' will do."

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Funny Animal Photos

Elephant Looks in the Mirror

"Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?"

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Funny Animal Photos

Campaign To End Sale of Battery Eggs

Environmentalists launch a campaign to stop the sale of battery eggs. This involves "pestering" consumers in supermarkets who are about to buy battery eggs. The environmentalist will not win the war. They will just make consumers angry. Radio advertisements will have the same effect.

If battery eggs are banned the price of supermarket eggs will increase from $2.50 to $10.00 a dozen. The government will also have the burden of compensation for battery farms which are forced to close.

The campaigners believe that consumers need to be educated about chickens living in tiny pens. People already know this. They don't need to be force-fed the truth. They also know that cows must be kept alive for blood to be drained from the body after they are knocked out. This doesn't stop them buying beef.

European countries are trying to change, but the supply of free-range eggs is insufficient to meet demand. Not enough businesses are prepared to re-invest in bigger cages. Furthermore, a recent university study showed that battery hens were not stressed.

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Society

Horse Lets One Go

"You blew off didn't you?"

"No I didn't!"

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Funny Animal Photos

Capitalism is Bad for Us

Research shows that capitalism is bad for us. Since the 1970s there has been an increase in mental illness of adults and children. Indications are that it is due to capitalism because the rise has been noted in English speaking capitalist countries and not in non-English speaking non-capitalist nations.

An average 23% of Americans, Britons, Australians, New Zealanders and Canadians suffered from mental illness in the last 12 months, but only 11.5% of Germans, Italians, French, Belgians, Spaniards and Dutch which have more restrictive trading systems.

Selfish Capitalism has massively increased the wealth of the wealthy, robbing the average earner to give to the rich. But there is no "trickle-down effect". Real wages have decreased in the US over the last three decades. Governments have reduced tax payments of the rich, placing responsibility for payment on low income earners.

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Society

Roo Loses Car Keys

"Where did I put those car keys?"

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Funny Animal Photos

Parents and Children Hit by New WA Drug Laws

Western Australia is about to fill up its jails and children's care homes in the war on drugs. New legislation will jail parents and take away children for the cultivation of one cannabis plant. The jail terms are mandatory for the manufacture of small amounts of other drugs.

The conservative government has certainly lived up to its ideals of trying to turn back the clock a century or so. Transportation to a far off land could be next for "criminals". An earlier Labor government had decriminalized minor marijuana use. Just why the WA government would want to change a situation that seemed to be working is the real question. The premier must know that tough regulation like in the US has failed, totally. If legislation worked, such action would be justified

Even in the UK, people found with a small amount of drugs on their person are given a warning the first time it happens. Only serial offenders are jailed. This is the best idea. Target the dealers not individuals who in many cases are experimenting. We let people damage their health by smoking tobacco. Allowing them to cultivate a small amount of marijuana for their own use is akin to that.

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Society

Tahr to the hairdresser

"I've been to the hairdresser. What do you reckon? Pretty good, eh."

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Rift Valley Created by Tectonic Event - Findings of Early Man Fortuitous

The birthplace of Mankind is believed to be the Rift Valley in East Africa. It was thought that the valley formed over a long period of time. James Cook University scientists in Australia have found that a tectonic event changed the flow of the Congo, Nile and other rivers thus creating the Ethiopian-Kenyan eastern segment, and the Ugandan-Malawi western branch.

Formerly the assumption was that this didn't happen at the same time. The eastern section developed up to 25 million years before the western segment. This was the prevailing theory.

The Australian evidence indicates that the tectonic event created the eastern and western branches at much the same time. Climate change models will now have to be reviewed.

Because the region is rich in fossils ongoing investigation occurs there. It is the only late Oligocene terrestrial fossil deposit in Africa below the equator. Though fossils of early Man have been found there, it may not be the actual birthplace of Mankind. If could just be fortuitous that evidence has been found there.

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Science

Dogs Taking Life Easy

"I reckon we should take life real easy."

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Elephants and Mammoths Have Much the Same DNA

Elephants aren't so different from woolly mammoths. DNA samples taken from mammoth hair shows they are much alike. Furthermore, there are indications that the mammoth population was so low toward the end that inbreeding took place.

If the unique mammoth genome can be isolated it can be inserted into elephant DNA to produce a woolly mammoth. It has also been found that differentiation between mammoth was only minor, so that a disease could have easily wiped them out.

Mammoth are more closely related to elephants than chimpanzees are to humans, which is about 99 percent. Evidence shows that there were two groups of mammoth. One group died out 45,000 years ago, the other 10,000 years ago.

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Science

An Alien Has Landed

Evidence of alien landings?

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Funny Animal Photos

Aboriginals Did Not Wipe Out Megafauna

The argument continues over whether humans were responsible for the extinction of megafauna. Giant emus, large kangaroos, marsupial lions and diprodons were destroyed by Aboriginals in Australia according to new research. This claim is based on fungi in dung of herbivores. For 130,00 years, despite dry periods, charcoal and pollen levels in dung remained the same until Aboriginals arrived. This means that climate change was not responsible for the extinction of megafauna 40,000 years ago.

There is a problem with this. When Captain Cook arrived in Australia the Aboriginal population was extremely low. Forty thousand years ago there would have been only a few hundred thousand of them. How could this low number possibly destroy all of the large animals? Some megafauna would have survived in regions where Aboriginals did not go. Australia is a very large continent.

It is claimed that when the megafauna died out the vegetation changed with more fires, and eucalyptus forests spread out killing off rainforests. Spores in dung is flimsy evidence to support a claim that human arrival led to the demise of megafauna. Rainforests being taken over by eucalyptus sounds very much like climate change. Furthermore. prevailing evidence shows no human remains among megafauna fossils.

Saying that the dung research proves humans destroyed giant animals is still not proven beyond doubt. Gavin Prideaux's announcement that the study "supported mounting evidence that climate change was not to blame" is premature.

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Paleontology

Dog Bets

"Got any tips? Yeah Little Boy in the 2.30."

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Funny Animal Photos

Eggs of Mussels Attract Compatible Sperm by Releasing Chemicals

Mussel sperm have to find the right egg. This is not as easy as it seems. When the eggs are released they can be scattered through ocean water or river. While mussels are attached to rocks, eggs and sperm are at the mercy of the elements. The eggs have to let sperm know that the eggs are available, so they send out a chemical message to attract suitable sperm.

Many species release chemical signals. The message sent has to be differentiated to prevent fertilization by siblings. A test was done forcing sperm to fertilize chosen eggs. Only compatible matches gave healthy offspring. In a later test mussel sperm were observed to choose compatible eggs to produce health young.

This is the first time chemical attraction has been observed in mussels. It shows how important compatibility is in many species. This brings into question the theory of gene pools where there is deemed to be no barrier to gene pairing. The idea that any male and female can have offspring no longer stands. Even human eggs send out chemical signals to attract compatible sperm. Some human couples cannot have children even when tests show they are perfectly healthy. Fertilization can occur with a different partner.

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Science

Bear Suntan

"What a gorgeous day for a suntan."

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Funny Animal Photos

Global Warming But Floods in Australia!

There is something strange going on with the weather. Despite reports telling us that Australia is becoming drier we are getting more rain than ever. They say that global warming will make it rain more but water will evaporate faster.

In Britain they may have to set water restrictions because it is raining less. Holding water in dams in Australia at the moment is a silly idea. With La Nina seemingly fixed off Australia's coast more and more rain is predicted. Some east coast towns, many inland, have had three house-destroying floods in three years.

The poles are melting. We know this. Yet long-term predictions about future weather for different countries is like water divining. It seems to be right, though the truth will be known only by what actually eventuates.

If the sea does rise and Australia still gets flooding rains people will abandon low, flood-prone regions permanently. There are only so many times you can repair a house. Australia will become what it has been in the past - hundreds of small islands. With new ports planned in this country to export more coal to the world this possibility becomes a probability.

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Climate

Obey Dog

"When I give an order I expect to be obeyed!

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Funny Animal Photos

There Is Soil on Mars

NASA scientists are now saying that "soil" on Mars could support vegetable life. Without an atmosphere, though, it seems no life is possible. Scientists are specific enough to say that asparagus and turnips will grow in Mars' soil but strawberries will not. Are they joking? Or are they for real?

The Phoenix Mars Lander found soil that is very much like that in many Earth backyards. Scientists are shocked that they have found soil. It is alkaline - thus, the claim that it is not good for strawberries. Apparently, the soil is rich in trace minerals.

My, how scientists can be wrong. It was thought that Mars "soil" would be salty - with no atmosphere and the sun would bleach it. But they were wrong. At least we know that there is soil and water in the form of ice just beneath the surface. There is evidence that in the past water flowed on the surface because erosion is evident. Rivers, lakes and oceans existed there once. Water reservoirs such as these indicate that the planet did once have an atmosphere.

If life did survive for a time on Mars future exploration will surely find it.

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Science

Cat PC Installation

"Oh darn it. Don't say I've got to install, again!"

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Funny Animal Photos

High Rents Put Pressure on Low-Income Earners and the Poor

A fall in house prices is a good thing for first home buyers, but it puts a squeeze on the rental market. With lower property values investors invest in other things, the bank or the share market. You would think that rents would move up and down with the price of housing, believing that monthly rents are tied to monthly mortgage repayments. This is a generality that is not always true.

The reality is that as house prices fall, rents go up as investment to built more rental properties declines. In Canberra rents increased by 2.2 per cent last year. Perth continues to experience a drain of money to mining areas from Perth city itself. Consequently, new rental properties have not been built and rents have also increased.

Those on low incomes who do not earn enough to get a mortgage are at the mercy of the rental market. As rents rise they have to pay more. Furthermore, students from poor families cannot afford to pay high rents.

Despite the mining boom in Australia, many are doing it tough. Unemployment in the non-mining sectors is starting to rise. A high Aussie dollars makes it difficult for manufacturing to compete. The big question is: Should Government support non-mining industries?" Economic rationalist would say no. The market should determine who should survive and who should go under. Nonetheless, pensioners have rents subsidized. Should this support be taken away?

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Society

Poor Dog

"What a poor example of a dog."

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Funny Animal Photos

Scout Bees Have "Curious" Brains Like Humans

It was thought that bees were like robots who went about their work on instinct alone, but some bees have "curious" genes. The scouts who find sources of food are actually mischievous seekers. Their genes give them a brain structure similar to humans.

Scout bees are independent creatures who don't go along with the mob. They find new food sources by intuition and pure skill. Being female, they go back to the hive do a wiggle dance to pass on directions, then go out again to find a new source.

Tests were done on a hive of bees. The hive was put into an enclosure and food was put out in different colored jars. Bees that located the jars were collected and marked with a dot of paint. Later the brains of these scout bees were removed and compared with the brains of normal hive bees. Brain activity in the genes of the two types of bees differed by 16 per cent. The brains of scouts could change the levels of neurotransmitters dopamine and glutamate. Another test was done with the scouts being fed sugar water laced with a neurotransmitter "booster", The scouts became more active in their search.

This proves that dopamine and glutamate are responsible for curiosity in humans. The common ancestor of bees and Man was a marine flatworm. These basic animals would not have had scouts, so the "curious" genes developed in both lines, bees and Man, separately. It is also probable that the gene variant can become active in any animal: it is latent in the gene toolkit.